Hannah Elizabeth Bevens's Projects

MFA Alumni

Major: Sculpture

Graduation Year: 2021

Artist Statement:

I am a studio artist, and I use my practice as a method of emotionally processing the events that have transpired throughout my life. I make work to understand the questions “what have I done?” and “what has happened to me?”.

Through the act of emotional process and introspective learning by the method of making art, I am discussing the labor, care, language, and play that is imperative to that act. It is with great effort that one can explore the internal landscape.

Having had experience working with and being trained in fibers, textiles and costuming, performance and public engagement, sculpture, metals, glass, ceramics, woodworking, painting and drawing, and photography, the physical objecthood of my work draws upon this variety of mediums according to what the work needs, and ultimately, what it is I need to process.

I find this concept of need to be of the utmost importance.

It is because of the events that have transpired in my life, the details to the questions what have I done? and what has happened to me?, that I have been brought to view the world through a philosophy of need. This is a survivor’s perspective, and survivor’s aesthetic; this is the survivor’s gaze. It is my goal, through the emotional process and introspective learning, to gain a sense of freedom— freedom from the constant state of survival.

With great effort, I can learn of what has happened, determine what I need, and have freedom.

This is a place for freedom.

Biography:

Hannah Elizabeth Bevens was born in Syracuse, NY, and grew up predominantly in Long Island, NY, before moving to the Portland, ME area with their family for their late adolescence. Hannah then went on to receive a BFA in Painting with a Minor in Theatre Production from State University of New York at New Paltz in 2013, a Master of Arts in Teaching from Maine College of Art in 2019, and a Master of Fine Arts in Interdisciplinary Art from Maine College of Art in 2021.

Hannah currently lives and works in Portland, ME.

Ellis-Beauregard Foundation, Artist Resident Program, January 2022

Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, IL, Word of Mouth, January 2022

ICA at MECA, Portland, ME, 2021 MFA Thesis Exhibition (My construction is my purpose and this is what gives me freedom.), May 2021

Target Gallery, Alexandria, VA, Those Spaces Between Us, 2020-2021

New Systems Exhibitions, Portland, ME, Our Bodies Know Where They Are Meant To Be, 2020

Museum of Mississippi Delta, Greenwood, MS, 4 Artists, 2020

Crosstown Arts, Memphis, TN, Color Schemes, 2019

Erin Hutton Productions, Portland, ME, Experimentation Station (Feature Artist), 2019

MECA, Portland, ME, Ritual / Power, 2019

Creative Portland, Portland, ME, Immersion, 2019

PortFringe, Portland, ME, Quapico, 2018

Kingston, NY, HOMOWreckers Presents, 2015 - 2017

Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, New Paltz, NY, BFA Thesis Exhibition (Things I Need), 2013

Apostrophe NYC, New York, NY, Failure to Communicate, 2013

New Paltz, NY, 158 Salon Productions, 2011 - 2013